The annual rhythms recur with comforting regularity, and once again the end of summer brings with it the renewal of the artistic year. No sooner is Labor Day past than we launch into an explosion of the cultural offerings that make life in the Bay Area so alluring.

On the schedule for this fall is the traditional gamut of possibilities, encompassing everything from the grandiose to the intimate. In the region’s theaters, concert halls, galleries and arenas, a broad range of artistic styles and voices will hold forth.

Some of that art will even find new venues. The work of Ai Weiwei, the Chinese dissident artist, for example, will be on display at Alcatraz (opening Sept. 27), and choreographer Jo Kreiter will stage her “Multiple Mary and Invisible Jane” on the exterior wall of the UC Hastings College of the Law (Sept. 12-20).

Patrons who prefer more traditional settings may welcome the revival of the Tony-winning musical “Pippin” (Sept. 24-Oct. 19), the production of Britten’s “Curlew River” from the Barbican in London, or the long-awaited collaboration between the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and the New Orleans musical demigod Allen Toussaint (Nov. 22-23). A retrospective of the work of the great Swiss-born photographer Robert Frank (opening Sept. 10) is on its way, as well as a new offering from the dance company Sasha Waltz and Guests (Oct. 24-25) and a profusion of musical premieres by the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players (Nov. 16).